A Savage Empire by Alan Axelrod

Author:Alan Axelrod
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

9

“Set the World on Fire”

LIEUTENANT COLONEL GEORGE WASHINGTON let three days pass before he held a “Council of War” on April 23 “to consult upon what must be done on Account of the News brought by Mr. Wart,” as he spelled Ensign Ward’s name. The lieutenant colonel noted the grim facts: Captain Trent’s garrison “consisted only of Thirty-three effective Men”; Washington himself led 159; against this total, the French had more than a thousand. The council of war prudently concluded that it was “a Thing impracticable to march towards the Fort without sufficient Strength.” Yet Washington appreciated that the Half-King, whose loyalty was so important, was pleading for help. Accordingly, he emerged from the council having decided to “advance as far as Red-Stone-Creek, on Monaungahela, about Thirty-seven Miles on this Side of the Fort, and there to raise a Fortification, clearing a Road broad enough to [accommodate] all our Artillery and our Baggage, and there to wait for Fresh Orders.”

The next day, Washington wrote to Maryland governor Horatio Sharpe of his “glowing zeal” to serve king and country. He did not mention anything about his zeal to protect his family’s investment in the Ohio Company, nor did he refer to his eagerness to come to the aid of the Half-King. For his part, the Half-King was sincerely anxious for English help. Although he might have opened up negotiations with the French—certainly Legardeur de Saint-Pierre had shown himself eager to pry him from Washington’s embrace—he had a strong personal reason for doing no such thing. Years earlier, Frenchmen had killed, boiled, and eaten his father. Why they did this, we do not know, but the event (understandably) colored the Half-King’s opinion of the French and surely played a role in motivating his alliance with the English. Washington believed that the Half-King was absolutely under his control, and wrote as much to Dinwiddie. In fact, the sachem, twice Washington’s age, described the younger man to the colonial Indian agent and interpreter Conrad Weiser as “good-natured” but without “experience.” It is doubtful that he blithely trusted his fate to Washington, but he was nevertheless pleased to have persuaded him to help the Iroquois fight the French. For that is how he saw the relationship: Washington had not won him over; he had triumphed over the Virginian. Viewed more objectively, it is clear that the two men simultaneously overestimated and underestimated one another. Washington assumed he could count on the Half-King’s ability and willingness to muster all the Iroquois warriors required to evict a thousand Frenchmen from Ohio Company territory, whereas the sachem believed that, through Washington, he could summon all the Englishmen he needed to chase the French from his people’s land.

Washington did appreciate that he could not take for granted the loyalty of the anticipated Indian cohort. He believed that if he did not act soon, his Indian allies would drift away (of course, they had yet to materialize). Dinwiddie had promised him reinforcements, but, like the Half-King’s warriors, these men also had yet to arrive.

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